〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 decently and in order as the Lord commanded 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as St. Clemens there goes on not without Reason and Rules 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where at appointed fixed seasons and hours Oblations and Holy Services are to be offered and performed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in what Place and by what Persons God has appointed that all things being religiously Performed and according to his Will they may be grateful and acceptable unto him where every Man has his Order and Station 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and therein gives his Thanks to God or serves him in his Publick Worship expressed by that one principal Branch or Performance To the chief Priest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are his Offices appropriated to the Priest or Presbyter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a special Province is assigned and the Levites have their own Ministry incumbent upon them The Lay-man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is confined to his Laick Affairs a Body it is like to that of an Army and which this Apostolical Person there recommends to their Consideration where the Souldier is under the Captain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 how in order how in readiness and in all subjection executing Commands and Obeying where all are not Praetors or Rulers of Thousands nor Rulers of Hundreds nor Rulers of Fifties every one in his Station and Sphere discharges what of the King and Tribunes is enjoyned him where the great cannot be without the less nor the less without the great in which is a yielding a mixture and condescension and all becomes useful 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. May then this our Body be kept whole and entire in Christ Jesus and every one be subject according to that Order in which by the Grace of God he is placed So that Apostolical Person goes on and so are his Prayers as well as Directions as is to be seen at large in that his Epistle A Collection Community or Body gather'd out of the World and so not of it as with a differing Head so by another infusion differing Laws diverse Offices for quite another end and with Powers for a present Peace which the World cannot give unto us Ye are my Body saith our Saviour and each one Members in particular his Body which is the Church ye are not of this World so Christ tells his followers again are neither the Subjects of it nor from its Powers receive neither Rules nor Measures by it § II AND surely then as a Body in and of it self so to Rule and Govern it self to execute its own jurisdiction to pass its own Laws and Sanctions to allot its rewards and penalties to receive and shut out to censure or remit to provide for a Succession in every thing furnished for self-existency and preservation in a word if there be a Church upon earth a body whose head is Christ and each Believer Members in particular if any thing like a visible Association the Rules and Laws and Reasons of all Associations in general enjoyn this nor can that Community be supposed such as is the Christian in particular to subsist under another live in dependency upon or by its concessions whose call and separation was on purpose to be another thing from it which had the grant for its being to reduce and recall in some Cases to gainsay and thwart it which is so fram'd and contrived as to be and increase under the severest of its frowns and the most raging Persecutions from those very Powers of this World which in its lay and make was to have the Kings of the Earth stand up and the Rulers to take Council together against it Our Saviour who knew all things who had the full design of his Father in his Head and before him knew also the several Accidents and Contingencies that would befall the Church and his Wisdom provided suitably he did not leave his Church as the Ostrich in Job did her young ones that every foot might crush and kill them nor did he Build upon those Sands either that every Wind which blows and Storm which descends could destroy her and which he must have done if founding his Church purely in Subordination to the secular Arm to the Wills and Passions of Princes which Experience tells us how various how mutable and disorderly they have sometimes been even the best of them has but the breath in his Nostrils and yet even the worst of them the greatest and a succession too of Tyrants has never been able to dissolve this Community to erase its Foundations To erect a Body solitary and alone without its own Laws and a strength that is singular to subsist and be Ruled by a Foreign Power and that is extraneous to it is in course to be swallow'd up throughly absorpt thereby And 't is again as bad or worse where every private Member is not obliged to such its own Constitutions and Jurisdictions this is Anarchy and Confusion which God cannot be the Author of the Society must on these terms equally dissolve and perish be as liable to Invasions as before Our Saviour therefore erected his Corporation independent to the Secular Power but dependent and in subordination as to its own Members and to one another and if any be unruly and do not submit to the Laws of their Body some of which are unchangeable and as the Sun for evermore others occasional and in the Prudence and Discretion of the present Governors Penal Laws Abstentions Interminations Excision it self is to follow the Church Censures most justly pass upon them nor ought they to have any benefit of that Body can they indeed if such disorders permitted which they so rent in pieces and which by such their Rebellions in course must decay be rendred unserviceable to themselves and others § III AND that this special Power is derived and thus limited to the Church is what as as the common reason so the common sense of Mankind must assent and submit unto it is notorious to the common Senses nor is there any one Demonstration carries more Evidence along with it 't is as plainly and legibly set before our Eyes as Christ Crucified was before the Eyes of the Galatians Gal. 3.1 upon the common Sense and traditional conveyance of Mankind as evidently seen from one to another by handing it downwards as those particular Persons who stood under the Cross did see and behold Christ distended and dying upon it and yet so foolish and bewitched were those very Galatians as to dissent from and make of none effect Christ Crucified unto them and there are of the same unhappy temper still amongst us that deny and exclude this Succession of Church-Power now and in whom to rectifie and undeceive By answering such Objections they produce in their own behalf is what I am in the next place to undertake Their grand Objection runs thus To assert a Church-Power independent and residing in differing Subjects from that of the State must be a restraint to
2. 5. or in what extent soever the Kings of Judah are proposed as Patterns to our Kings for the exercise of Power in the Christian Church in our Nine and thirty Articles and may authorize them in it to be sure they were never design'd Examples in this particular of Unction or whatever Power it was they were to have as from them our Church could not mean it should thus be derived Our Kings of England 't is plain owe no one instance of their Power to the Coronation it self much less to their being then anointed one but particular Ceremony in the Performance of it and all Jurisdictions and Rights they have as Kings they have before and are to enjoy their whole life-time Supposing they were neither anointed nor even Crown'd at all 't is all an high Ceremony Solemn and Magnificent Peculiar as is the Person and Power and Majesty of a Prince as is becoming a Crown Imperial when set on his Head and the anointing may be used as very lively significant and expressing that separation of his Person which was due and made and acknowledged before and really in him as has been the Custom by Oyl so to sever and set apart Persons and Things but that the thing it self is either commanded or expected by God or design'd and used by Man to any other end service or purpose I never could yet understand David Blondel in his Formula regnante Christo Pag. 119. tells us that the Unction or Custom of anointing Princes was not used among Christians till the year of our Lord 750. and the Consecration of their King Pippin and it was often repeated as twice four five times a year as he instances in several Princes and makes evident it is not look't upon as an initiating investing Ceremony whatever else use they appropriated to it though afterwards it was adjudged Sacriledge to iterate it by a growing Superstition and assum'd Opinion of it the famous Arch-Bishop of Paris De Marca in his Second Preface to his Book De Concord c. and in the Second Book Cap. 7. of the Treatise it self tells us of some in the Greek Church that were of the Opinion that the Prince had the Priestly Power by virtue of his Unction And it was defined in a Synod held at Constantinople in the year of our Lord Nine hundred and seventy that the anointing of the Emperor gives him the same Power to forgive Sins as has the Sacrament of Baptism and the Greeks out of the same Principle of flattery managed the same Opinion and gave their Emperor the same Power as hath the Patriarch but this as we are told depended mostly on a Faction then on foot as it was in it self precarious and Arbitrary so wee 'l leave it to its first bottom which is none at all nor needs it any farther Consideration § V NON est Respublica in Ecclesia sed Ecclesia in Republica 't is the saying of Optatus lib. 3. Contr. Parmen Donatist The Common-wealth is not in the Church but the Church in the Common-wealth under the Head and Government of the Powers of the World as to the Temporals and that instance of the Polity of it no Plea of Office and Deputation what Commission or Designation soever from God and Christ can or ever did exempt any one Man on Earth from it collate or invest therewithal a Power for Earth above it at least as binding Rules for continuance and a pattern for future Practice Our Saviour had it not who made me a Judge or a Divider and none can exercise it as from him but by Usurpation but the Common-wealth and the Church are no ways thus in Subordination and dependencies in another regard as the Church is a Body endow'd with Powers Spiritual thus they are different as the Soul and Body are in Man's Person in their distinct Orbs and Stations as are the Sun and the Moon in the Heavens have a quite diverse Orb and Powers Influences and Devolutions that are variant As the Church must be always in the World in that other sense subject to its governance to the accidents too oft the frowns and high displeasures of it till the World it self is no more So must the World be in the Church in this other sense if that World for whose Sins Christ died if coming to Heaven and Salvation be subject to its Head and Jurisdiction the World may not improperly be said to be as the Moon and the Church as the Sun receiving light and assistance splendor and glory and beauty from it thus influenced and increasing with the increase of God though the Metaphor needs not run any farther and as it has been stretcht too much by some and all this is demonstrable and will appear as evident as the Sun in its Zenith or at Noon day 't is wrote as with an Adamant a Pen of iron on a Rock on that Pillar the Church to be seen and read of all Men and to all Ages for evermore in the Original rise and succession of Church Power in all Transactions Records and Histories of it in the Matter of Fact as notorious to the common sense of Mankind as that one and two make three is to his reason and which is the only Rule in this case to be gone by I 'le begin with the Apostles and so come down to those Ages of the Church and Laws Imperial and Concessions whose Truth and Interest is believed by all to be such as not to engage them to be false in which all Parties agree and concenter § VI PVLCHERRIMA illa quae Ecclesia continet coagmentatio non ex Imperio Romano fluxit Christo monstrante sequentibus Apostolis Grot. in Animadvert Rivet ad Articul 7. That comeliness of Order and Degrees in the Church did not slow from the Roman Empire but from Christ Jesus the Apostles following and imitating of him and as he their chief great Master had not so neither had they his immediate Deputies and Successors their Power either from Man or the Will of Man they in no instance consulted with Flesh and Blood with any thing Humane and of the World in the first rise devolution and conveyance of it but still term themselves the Apostles and Ministers of Christ Jesus nor in the execution of this Power did they do otherwise they consulted only with themselves in the arduous difficult cases arising 't is to the Spirit of the Prophets the Prophets alone are to be subject they go up to Jerusalem to the Apostles and Elders there Acts 15. and 't is Peter James and John consult together upon the like occasion Gal. 2. 't is they ordain Elders and give Laws in all Churches leave Timothy and Titus in Ephesus and Crete and appoint for decency and order they are brought before Kings but 't is mostly if not always to suffer they there take the advantages to assent and plead this their Right and Power distinct and separate to give Rules and Exhortations but
him That he exalts the Church-Power above God and Christ and the Magistrate as all their Masters And indeed according to these Mens Notions to apply the Superlative to any Person or Thing is the height of Blasphemy For why God is not excepted And the most common Phrases of a most Mighty Prince a most Holy Place a most Wise Counsellor are all instances of it nor can any one Attribute of Gods be otherwise applyed to the Creature Whereas if the Word be understood and used as in common use it is to be and in complyance with things it must be suitable to the present Subject it is assign'd and limited to and the particular things it is conversant with as under such and such Heads and Orders all is easie and plain Thus God is the alone Supreme all Rule Governance and Autority being originally in him and eminently Christ is Supreme as Head of the Church to whom all Power is given of the Father for bringing Mankind to Heaven the Apostles and their Successors the Pastors of the Church were and are now Supreme on Earth in the same Power derived from Christ by the Apostles unto them The Prince is Supreme and hath all Power from God committed unto him as to Government relating to this World over all Things Persons and Causes to appropriate or alienate to Endow Limit Restrain Coerce or Compel as the alone Supreme Law-giver upon Earth and none may oppose and the great and gyant Objection that is only wrangling about and mistaking of words falls to the ground as it is in it self nothing CHAP. IV. Chap. 4. The Contents The Objections answer'd Selden's Error that there are to be no other Punishments by Christ than was before and under the Law the Query is to be what Christ did actually constitute He mixes the Temporal Actions of the Apostles and those design'd for Perpetuity Adam and Cain might have more than a Temporal Punishment Sect. 1. The great Disparity betwixt the Jewish and Christian State considered no Inferences to be drawn from the one to the other but what is on our side Sect. 2. Theirs is the Letter ours the Spirit They Punish'd by Bodily Death we by Spiritual Sect. 3. If Government was judged so absolutely necessary by the dispersed Jews that they then framed one of their own for the present Necessity and whose Wisdom in so doing Mr. Selden so much admires it must blemish our Saviour much to say he purposely call'd together a Church and design'd it none of its own to preserve it Sect. 4. The Jews Excommunication was not bodily Coercive and then there may be such a Punishment an Obligation to Obedience without force and that is not outward and this much more in the Christian Society Sect. 5. And this their Government abstracted from the Civil Magistrate is an Essay of Christ's Government so far of the same Nature to come into the World Sect. 6. The Christian Church might be both from Caesar and Christ as was the Jewish from God and Caesar and there is no thwarting The Jews and Christians distinct Sect. 7. In answer to his main Objection That all Government must be of this World Sect. 8. It is replied To assert Christ to have such a Kingdom is to thwart his design of coming into the World the whole course of his Actions and Government and those Ancients that expected him to come and Rule with them on Earth yet did not believe it to be accomplished till after the Resurrection Sect. 9. To say he therefore has no Power at all is as wide of Truth the way of Men in Error to run from one extreme to another and of Mr. Selden here Sect. 10. The Church is a Body of a differing Nature from others Sect. 11. With differing Organs and Members of its own in Subordination to one another Sect. 12. With different Offices and Duties Gifts and Endowments these either Common to all Believers or limited to particular Persons Sect. 13. As Christians in common they had one Faith into which Baptized and of which Confession was made the Apostles Creed and other Summaries of Faith and sound Doctrine Interrogatories in Baptism How Infants perform it Sect. 14. They had one and the same Laws and Rules for Obedience for which they Covenanted which is their Baptismal Vow the Abrenunciation of the World the Flesh and the Devil Sect. 15. One Common Worship and Service and Religious Performance to God in their Assemblies the particular Offices and Duties there the Priest and People officiate interchangeably as in Tertullian Justin Martyr c. Sect. 16. Common Duties and Services as to God so to one another in supplying one anothers Necessities as occasion Sect. 17. In the supply of such as attended at the Altar by a Common Purse deposited in the hands of the Bishop Sect. 18. Of the Poor and Indigent whose Treasurer was the Bishop Sect. 19. The Power Offices and Duties not promiscuous but limited to particular Persons are those of the Ministry distributed into the three standing Orders of Bishop Presbyter and Deacon and which make up that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Gospel Priesthood to remain to the Restitution Sect. 20. This Power and Jurisdiction though limited to and residing in these three yet it is not in each of them alike in the same degree force and virtue the Deacon is lowest the Presbyter next the Bishop the full Orders and Vppermost Supreme and including all Sect. 21. Against this Primacy of Bishops that of Metropolitans Exarchy Patriarchy and the Supremacy of Rome is objected Sect. 22. The Metropolitan c. is in some Cases above the Bishop but not in the Power of the Priesthood 't is the same Power enlarged No new Ordination in Order to it Sect. 23. The Vniversal Primacy of the Bishop of Rome is but Pretended not bottom'd on either the Scriptures or Fathers or Councils Sect. 24. 25 26. The Bishops Superiority or full Orders and Power in the Church is reassumed and farther asserted He with his Presbyter or Deacon or some one of them are to be in every Congregation for the Presbyter or Deacon or both to assemble the People and Officiate and not under him is Schism The several instances of this Power of the Priesthood Sect. 27. To Preside in the Assemblies Pray give Thanks for Teach and Govern there No Extempore Prayers in those Assemblies Sect. 28. To Administer the Sacraments the Consecration of the Lords Supper by Prayer and Thanksgiving and Attrectation of the Elements Baptism by Lay-Persons Rebaptizations on what terms in the Ancient Church Confirmation Sect. 29. To Vnite and Determine in Council The use of Councils and Obligation Their Autority Declarative Autoritative Sect. 30. To impose Discipline the several instances and degrees of it in the Ancient Church Indulgencies and Abatements Sect. 31. To Excommunicate or cast out of the Church a Power without which the Church as a Body cannot subsist a natural Consequent to Baptism Priests not excommunicated
VI. and when but a Child and which I remember is objected by Parsons the Jesuit in his Three Conversions of England and we are risked sufficiently for it nor without cause if true without rejecting Doctor Stillingfleets M SS and which tells us that both State and Church met at Windsor in his days and determined it otherwise and that the original and full Power of the Priesthood was in him the Prince as now abiding upon Earth next under Christ But how is it that I have really dealt with these two Doctors being engaged in a Treatise the result of the course of my Studies I met among several others them my Adversaries as I did those others so also I detected their Errors refuted their Reasons repelled their Arguments and voided their Autorities in that particular as well as I could and is not this what every Body does under these like Circumstances or did ever any Man engage upon a Subject and not take notice of the known and obvious opposers and thwarters of him surely never and I have this to say for my self that I have never made one reflexion upon either of them but where my subject directly engaged me to it nor is there any thing that is Personal and Foreign that I have meddled withal As for their Eminency in the Church and Controversies that are of high concern among us and which they have discharged with a general applause I have not any ways endeavoured an abatement of their Merit but this was so far from being an Argument or but Motive to me that I was not to encounter them on this Subject that it mostly prevailed with me to do it doth the King of Israel go out as against a Flea nor do those of meaner Order and Quality undertake that Autority which is in it self none falls of it self to the ground nor was ever influential upon any and had I had no sense of the mischief in points of so great concern that must necessarily accrue to the Church of God under such their Autorities in future ages especially I had wholly passed them by untouched and uncanvassed as the Combination expected and require What is farther urged that we are not to create differences among our selves and that we have Enemies enough abroad is most true but that which makes our Enemies abroad is that we do not unanimously assert and vindicate the one Faith and Truth that we countenance those among our selves which violate it where divisions already made and other Doctrines brought in this is the rule of St. Paul Mark such and his Practice is the same upon the Rule and James and Cephas and John who seemed to be somewhat and Pillars were withstood to the face by him and the same Practice is every where in the Christian Church apparent I 'le only add this one thing more Whatever my first Error was in designing this my Collection for the Press without their Approbation and it appears they thought it my Duty to do otherwise they had my Copy a full quarter of a year in their hands and I am informed did Transcribe what seemed for their advantage but never had I any notice any ways of my great mistake that it might be Corrected or not Printed and whether what I have answered be of force that I burn my Papers I durst appeal to an easie Consideration or why did not the two Deans themselves inform me better when I addressed my self to each of them in a distinct Letter and begg'd the favour that I might know what my fault was and which the Injury that I had done I have been credibly told that they said my style was rough and haughty and therefore they would not answer I confess I did not consider them in their stalls and where I always pay that regard the Secular Power requires and which alone places them there but as stating to them a Point of Divinity or which is more a Case of Conscience where Truth only is to be respected and with a thorow Severity and any thing but like a Complement is not to have place But whatever my Letter was and however they scorn to answer it I am not ashamed here to Print it in the very words I sent it to each of them apart only the Site of their Names is changed as was the particular Address Reverend Sir I Am very well assured that you are not Ignorant nor indeed can you be of some Papers of mine that have been in so many Mens hands and more Months in London since the beginning of last Winter and design'd for the Press as also of the Reasons why they are not yet Printed viz. Some Reflexions upon your Self and the Dean of St. Paul's I am mightily satisfied with mine own Integrity in that Design and Action and besides it was never yet objected by any of those worthy Persons who have read the Discourse that the Cause was not useful and seasonable or that I had betray'd it in general or any one ways injur'd you in any one relation and yet it is you two that are Pleaded as the very occasion that they remain still in the M SS I do therefore once more deal with you plainly and sincerely thô with a due regard to your accidental Dignities and in which you are my Superiors as a Christian Brother and fellow Presbyter and whose Conscientious Zeal for the Cause of God's Church Catholick and this its particular live Member here in England may be supposed as much and as duly bottomed as another Mans or Member of it and thus with all Humility address my self unto you Either I have done you Injury or I have not if I have condescend but in Charity to give me the particulars and you will oblige me in abundance I 'le be so hold to say you never obliged any man more and my Acknowledgment and Submission shall be equally real and hearty if I have not and all is said of you be true i. e. your own Words and Sense you to this day own and assent to it or you do not if you do what Injury can I now have done you in Publishing your own Words and Sense if you do not you ought to have satisfied the Church of God by a Recantation as Publick as your Error Scandal and Offence the alone way to prevent such Reflexions from those with whom you converse only in your Writings nor can any man otherwise be blame-worthy that makes them Be pleased to consider you have not erred in the Leniora Evangelii and the Point is Whether God has a Church on Earth with its peculiar appropriated Power or not and the Laws of God his Church and all Christian Kingdoms require of you at once its Acknowledgment You are not Ignorant what Pleas are made for Errors against the Church and of the Dammages accrew to her by haling in particular Doctors if but leaning that way and seeming such as their Abettors and Avouchers and this by how much greater such Doctors
King than the King as such is a Priest than a good Man is always knowing or the Despotical and Regal Power go together The mixing these several distinct Gifts and Powers is the inlet to all disorder The King and Priest have been brought to a Morsel of Bread by it Sect. 3. Kings have no Plea to the Priesthood by their Vnction the Jewish Custom and Government no example to us if so the consequent would be ill in our Government Our Kings derive no one Right from their being Anointed Blondel's Account of this Vnction The Error and Flattery of some Greeks herein Sect. 4. The Church how in the Common-wealth and the Common-wealth how in the Church and both independent and self-existent Sect. 5. The Church founded only and subsisting in and by Christ and his Apostles Sect. 6. Proved from Clemens Romanus Ignatius Irenaeus Origen Tertullian Justin Martyr Athenagoras Minutius Foelix Sect. 7. A distinct Power is in the Church all along in Eusebius Eccl. Hist Socrates c. Opposed to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Power of the Prince so called all along in those Writings Sect. 8. This was not from the present Necessity when the Empire was Heathen if so the Christians had understood and declared it The Apostles God himself had forewarn'd and preinformed the World of it It continued the same when Christian only with more advantages by the Princes Countenance and Protection Sect. 9 10. In Athanasius Hosins St. Jerome Austin Optatus Chrysostom Ambrose Sect. 11. In Eusebius History from Constantine and other Historians downward the Emperor and Bishop have alike their distinct Throne and Succession independent as plain as words and story can report it Sect. 12. And the same do the Ancient Councils all along separating themselves from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sect. 13. This is not the Sense of the Bishops only in their own behalf and which is the Atheistical popular Plea and Objection the Cruelty of the French Reformers Sect. 14. The Emperors own and submit unto it as Constantine though misunderstood by Blondel Valentinianus Justinian Theodosius Leo c. Sect. 15 16. Blondel owns all this and yet does not understand it Sect. 17. All this farther appears from the Laws and Proceedings of the Empire and the Church as in the two Codes Novels and Constitutions from our Church Histories Photius Nomocanon Sect. 18. This farther appears from the Power of the Empire in Councils and particularly that so much talked of Instance in Theodosius Sect. 19. From their Power exercised on Hereticks Heresie is defined to be such by the Bishops Sect. 20. In Ordinations Sect. 21. Church-Censures Mr. Selden's Jus Caesareum relates only to the outward Exercise of the Jewish Worship and comes up exactly to our Model The state then of the Jews answers this of Christianity Sect. 22. The Christian Emperors never Excommunicated in their own Persons or by their own Power Mr. Selden says they did His Forgeries detected His ridiculous account of Holy Orders from Gamaliel He was a Rebel of 1642. Design'd a Cheat on the Crown when annexing to it the Priesthood Sect. 23. What the Empire made Law relating to Religion was first Canon or consented to by the Clergy Nothing the Empires alone but the Penalty So Honorius and Theodosius Valentinian and Marcian Zeno and Leo. Sect. 24 25. No need of present Miracles to Justifie this Power to Assert it does not affront Magistrates 'T is always to be own'd before them Dr. Tillotson's Sermon on this bottom Arianism was of old opposed against Constantius That this Power ceased when the Empire became Christian is a tattle It receiv'd many Advantages but no one Diminution thereby Sect. 26. § I THIS Power of the Church or Power Ecclesiastical it is not in the Prince issues and flows not from the Secular Temporal Governor he is not the Subject of it he is in himself neither Bishop nor Pastor can neither officiate in the high Affairs of Salvation nor ordain substitute and depute others to do it 't is no Duty of his this way to Teach and Instruct the People the Holy Sacraments are not Administred nor can the Church Censures be executed by him Great and vast is the Power committed by God to Kings here on Earth peculiar is their Power and none else may have none else can Plead a title to it 't is the nearest to Infinite of any Devolution vouchsafed from the Heavens to Mankind and the most of his Image is Characterized and enstamped on their Persons communicated in the largest measure unto them and God hath own'd them all along as such in Scripture suitably severed and separated them from the rest of Mankind placed them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the higher places of the Earth next himself in the Honors and Dignities here above and beyond any other Order and Dignity of men whatever a Kingdom and Majesty and Glory and Honor by the most high God is given unto thee Dan. 5.18 but yet these are not the only Separates he has upon Earth his alone Anointed and that to Publick Offices and Services thus he had his Priests of old and whose Persons and Power was separate too Non est tuum O Ozia adolere Deo sed Sacerdotum 2 Chron. 26.18 It appertaineth not unto thee O Uzziah to burn incense to the Lord but to the Priests the Sons of Aaron that are consecrated to burn incense go out of the Sanctuary for thou hast trespassed neither shall it be for thine honor from the Lord thy God There is one Jesus of Nazareth a Man approved of by God and by his right hand exalted the Holy Child Jesus whom he hath Anointed whom he raised from the Dead and made both Lord and Christ God who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in times past to the Fathers by the Prophets hath in these last days spoke unto us by his Son whom he hath appointed Heir of all things too and who is also the Image of his Person who hath all Power in Heaven and Earth given unto him a Power to Teach and Baptize all Nations in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost a Power for the managery of the things not of the Men of the Earth but of their Souls and Persons for Heaven a Power above that of Angels but not to tread upon Thrones and Scepters of Princes contemn Dignities which Angels durst not do a Kingdom though not of this World yet a true one once given him of God and again to be delivered up by him to the Father who is the head of his Body the Church Colos 1.18 contrary to whom as we are not to set up and be beguiled by Angels so neither Kings nor Princes and not hold fast the head from which all the body by joynts and band having nourishment and knit together increase in the increase of God Col. 2.18 19. Nursing Fathers Kings and Queens are
foresight for that very purpose of all even Contingencies and much more of what was to come to pass in the future Ages of the Church and as the thing it self was so predivulg'd that Kings and Queens should be Nursing Fathers and Mothers to the Church and this seems reasonable and requisite to be done were it only to satisfie mens Minds in the revolution especially since all Revelations ended in their Persons and 't is only for such to believe and assent to after-translations and new appearances in the Affairs of Religion and not upon such notices aforehand as expect and depend upon new Discoveries and Periodical Illuminations whimsical and Enthusiastical Persons WHEN God was to constitute the Jewish § X Body engaged and stipulating according to the Law of Moses the present State and Necessities as well as other Occurrences foreseen hindring the perfection and full accomplishment of his designed Platform for some time the Wisdom and Mercy and Providence of God which is always present with himself and his own People and accompanies his designs foretold and declared what they were to expect in the particular instances the present narrower state of things and future ill humors of Men prohibiting the one and accidentally occasioning the other As when the Model and Shape of their Government was to be changed into that of Kings or a translation of Power from Person to Person as is the pretended case here it was declared long before by Moses Deut. 17.14 as when the Worship was to be transferr'd at first of necessity elsewhere as is again also here pretended that Church-Power was for a time in the Clergy to the place that God should choose to the Temple at that time not built Men are generally in love with old ways and call that old they have time out of mind been accustomed to Innovations are not relish'd without plain and a great Autority nothing but Prophecy or present notorious Miracles or a great assurance from those whom a known outward evidence makes appear and most manifest that 't was delivered down from Persons so assisted by God and as God's Wisdom and Goodness is always the same so neither certainly had his Mercy and Providence been shorter to this his Body of Christians than 't was to that of the Jews in the like case had there been any like it among Christians as indeed there was none the Government of the Church which is here in this Discourse asserted remaining one and the same and in the same succession of Persons when the Powers of the Earth were Christian as before when they were Heathen and the good Providence of God so ordered it that Constantine the Emperor's becoming Christian and his Succession the Church and Church-men received only new Courage and Strength the greatest additional advantages in such their Charges and Offices by the Imperial Countenance and Protection with all manner of supplies and abundance as to Places Utensils Revenues and Immunities Stately Churches being immediately erected with the greatest magnificence and elegancy of Structure the Furniture as rich and Endowments as large with a like Privilege as to Persons and Things Investitures every ways answerable and all assistance conferr'd and Provision for the time to come by setled Laws and most wholesome Constitutions to preserve and continue what was thus done and granted Serviant Reges terrae Christo etiam leges ferendo pro Christo as St. Augustine speaks in his 48 Epistle The Kings of the Earth serve the Church in making Laws to defend her and which Saying was occasioned by St. Augustine and more to that purpose in that Epistle by reason of the severer Imperial Laws and Penalties made against and inflicted upon that spawn of the Donatists those unruly Circumcellians who broke out into all manner of Outrages and Violence and though the Church had not long enjoyed this Peace but what is the woful effect of Ease and Plenty Divisions and Breaches arose and grew wide within her self carried on to great Ruptures and much was innovated and taught amiss in other Points yet as to this particular the Subject of Church-Power it was never questioned fell not under debate much less was it wrested out of the hands of Church-men did any one Emperor if not withal known Heretical either usurp it to himself or alienate it from the Bishops but all along acknowledge and confirm it to them and this will be as clear from the Aera or Date of their turning Christians as it has appear'd to have been from the first entrance of Christianity till then and that if we continue our Method and look into those times as we have done into the foregoing Ages THERE was no Man of the Age more § XI tenderly Conscientious in professing and paying his Obedience to the Emperor than was the holy Athanasius how solicitously and anxiously did he Vindicate himself when accused as an Enemy and Traducer of him when by his cruel and most malicious Adversaries which were many represented as Rebellious and Disobedient This will appear sufficiently from all such as have imployed their Pens in giving to the World an account of those Transactions by the Arians and Meletians managed and improv'd against him and which were numerous and particularly from his own Apology to Constantius of which he that will take a taste let him read the beginning of it only if he thinks much of his labour to go through with it he acknowledges the Power of the Empire in Religious things in assigning the Feasts of Dedication and their times 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he acknowledges his Power over his Person and asks his Diploma or Letters of leave for the exercise of his Episcopal Function in his own Church of Alexandria and for the Convention of Synods Ibid. p. 682. 754. 761. Ed. Paris he asks the Emperor's Grant concerning the Publick Service and Churches in Alexandria as we have out of Sozomen Eccl. Hist l. 3. c. 20. but yet he puts a difference betwixt the Work of a Synod and that of the Empire and blames those that confound them or rather refer all to the Emperor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 730. he refuses to receive Arius into Communion upon his Heretical Terms and Principles though the Emperor do Command him though he threaten him if he do not and for refusing he causes him to be deposed by a Synod held at Tyre for that very purpose and of his own Convention and afterwards banish'd him and which he submits to but not to deliver up the Rights of the Church of God as Socrates tells us in his Ecclesiastical History Lib. 1. cap. 27 28.32.35 and he is so bold with Constantius as to six the mark of Antichrist upon him when he undertakes the Protection of a wicked Religion dissolving the received Orders of Christ and his Apostles creates of his own head new Constitutions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as in Athanasius Ep. ad Solit. Vit. agentes p. 845. 860. and reproves the Emperor
farther that he pretends to have the judicial Determination of Bishops but really manages and does all himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ib. and evidently again distinguishes between the work of a Bishop and the work of an Emperor he goes on and is more daring and positive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when any such thing was heard of from the beginning of the World that the Judgment and Decision of the Church had its Autority and Measures from the Empire or was ever any such Determination known at all many Church Decisions have been made but never did the Presbyters perswade the Emperor to any such thing neither did the Prince intermeddle with the things of the Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ibid. And all this is recorded by Athanasius of the Divine and most Excellent Hosius in that his Epistle Ad Solitarium c. Pag. 840 repeating there Hosius his Epistle to 〈◊〉 on the same occasion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who drew up the Nicene 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one that was heard and submitted to by all his own words are these to the Emperor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Do not interpose thy self nor meddle with Ecclesiastical Affairs nor do you Command in these things but rather learn them of Vs to Thee God hath committed the Empire to Vs he hath deputed what is the Churches and as he that undermines the Government opposes the Ordinance of God so do thou take heed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lest forcing to thy self the things which are of the Church you become liable to as great a guilt for it is written give unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's and unto God the things which are Gods It is neither lawful for us to have the Government upon Earth nor hast thou the Power of Holy things O King St. Jerome speaks of the evil Bishops only the Character is upon them De Ecclesiae Principibus qui non dignè regunt oves Domini as of Princes in the Church with Power of Jurisdiction in themselves in his Comments on Jeremiah cap. 23. Sacerdos est Caput the Priest is the Head an Original devolving upon others Comment in 1 Cor. 12. and upon Romans 13. Apostolus in his quae recta sunt judicibus obediendum non in illis quae Religioni contraria sunt the things of Religion are not to be subjected to Kings nor any in Autority under them And to this purpose he says again in Isai 1. Apostolos à Christo constitutos Principes Ecclesiarum the Apostles were constituted by Christ Princes of the Churches And the same is said in his Preface to the Epistle to the Galatians and particularly on Psal 44. Fuere O Ecclesia Apostoli Patres tui quia ipsi te genuere c. The Apostles O Church were thy Fathers that begot thee now because they are gone out of the World you have in their room Bishops Sons which are created of thee and those are thy Fathers by whom thou art governed The Gospel being spread in all Parts of the World in which Princes of the Church i. e. Bishops are constituted This Holy Father assigning all Church-Power to and in it self and if it be suspected whether these Comments on the Psalms be St. Jerome's own I have yet here repeated this passage out of them as most fully appearing his sense to whoso pleases to consult his Works especially his Commentary St. Augustine's Opinion we have already in part spoke of and he that will undertake an Enquiry will find him all along of the same Opinion I 'le only instance in the differences occasion'd by the Donatists and what Power the Empire assum'd to it self in those great and many Controversies and their Decisions related by him which he tells us is only to make outward Laws in defence of what appears to be Truth and says he it falls out sometimes Reges cum in errore sunt pro ipso errore contra veritatem leges ferunt that they make Laws against Truth themselves being in Error and good Men are only prov'd thereby as evil Men by their good Laws are amended Tom. 7. l. 3. Cont. Crescon Gramat cap. 51. they command that which is Good and forbid that which is Evil Non solum quae pertinent ad humanam Societatem verùm etiam ad divinam Religionem in things which belong not only to Humane Society but to Divine Religion he has Power to enquire into debates and to provide for Truth and Peaco by the Bishops to assign the Persons Time and Place Vt superstitionem manifesta ratio confutaret that Reason may gain upon Superstition and Truth be made manifest Collat. 1. diei 3. cum Donatist Nor was Cecilianus purg'd and set free but by Judiciis Ecclesiasticis Imperialibus by the Ecclesiastical as by the Imperial Judgment and Determinations Ibid. nor will it appear that the Powers of the Empire have concern'd themselves any farther in those quarrels than by abetting or discouraging by outward Laws and Punishments what was represented as Truth unto them and which the Church alone hath not Power to do either to award at first or after mitigate but by Prayers and Arguments and therefore the Civil Laws and Indulgences have been sometimes severer and sometimes too indulgent as Accidents or Truth over-ruled as is to be seen in his Third and Fourth Books ad Cresconium and when these Laws went too hard upon these Donatists and pinched their Faction too sorely then they cried out of Persecution denied the Empire this Power in Divine things and that they were to stand at no humane Judicature as is the way of all such Factions when themselves only persecute and invade and whose Insolencies and Rapines are at large told us by St. Austin in his Forty eighth Epistle and by Optatus in his Treatise against Parmenius the Donatist Hence that of Donatus lib. 3. ibid. Quid Imperatori cum Ecclesia What has the Emperor to do with the Church whom Optatus there sharply upbraids as well as reproves for it tells Donatus of his Pride and unheard of insolency in so doing in lifting up himself above him who is second to God alone Cum supra Imperatorem non sit nisi solus Deus who sits as God in all forensick outward Judicatures and no man can withstand him but Church-Power is still supposed a quite differing thing I mean that which our Saviour left immediately to his Church it falls not under this head of things 't is derived in another stream as the design of his whole Book declares nor is Optatus for this or any other like Expression to be thought to refer all Church-Power into the Empire than those other Fathers did using much the same Expressions and which is above observed and he in particular returns the rise and devolution of the Bishops of Rome to St. Peter by whose Successors it was then in Siricius the Bishop in his days in his Second Book against Parmenius and so St.
only Regnante Christo and the Reign of the Empire is left out though it do no ways infer and prove that all Empire is originally in Christ both as to Spirituals and Seculars and that he that is his Succession the Church has the disposal of the Kingdoms of the World too Primarily and Originally in him as some zealous Parasites of the Roman Faith thence it seems have inferr'd and against whom the main Plot of D. Blondel in this his Book is laid and very well yet this it infers and evidently proves That our Saviour and his Succession the Church have been always supposed to have had a Kingdom in the World not to supplant and overturn to usurp and encroach upon but to bless that other of the World to render it Prosperous on Earth and by her holier Laws and Discipline to bring all to the Kingdom of Heaven when the Reign on Earth is at an end But this D. Blondel could not or would not see himself and therefore a thing too usual with him runs into the opposite extreme to his Adversaries is angry when this very Church-Power and its existence of which himself gives so evident a Demonstration is asserted solitary and not in the Empire as no ways flowing and included in its Constitution as the other will have no Empire but from and in the Church so hard a matter is it for some Men to contend for Truth and against the Church of Rome at once and as has above been observed but these Oversights if no worse are usual with him 't is like his ill luck in other cases § XVIII AND he that duly consults and considers the sundry Proceedings and Laws and judiciary Acts of the Empire about Church-Matters either as interspersed in our Church Histories or as Collected and United in the two Codes the Theodosian and Justinian in their several Laws Novels and Constitutions will readily grant all this and more that the Church and State the Worldly or Secular and Ecclesiastical or Spiritual Power were still consider'd reputed and proceeded on as quite distinct Bodies and Powers though both flowing from the same Original and Fountain yet as diverse as the Soul and Body with several Offices and Duties on each incumbent in different Channels convey'd and all aiming at the great and ultimate end the general advantage of Mankind and each individual both with their faces to the same Jerusalem but in several Paths and Determinations judiciary in order to it Hee 'l find that as the Church the Councils and Bishops were ever Conscientious and Industrious that they entrenched not on the Empire withheld not from it what was its due usurped not any thing was not their own paid all manner of Observances to Kings and Secular Governors in all manner of Duties as Prayers Thanksgiving Instructions Directions Admonitions Tribute Loyalty c. So again did the Empire preserve their Functions Persons and Estates give them Liberties Enfranchisements Protestations unless where Apostates as Julian where overmuch favouring Heresies as some time Constantius c. countenanced and provided for Truth and Holiness and sound Discipline according to the Rules Canons Directions Interpretations and Determinations given by the Bishops assembled in Council or occasionally otherways made and recommended unto them the Church still Petitioned and Supplicated the Empire when by the Affronts and Insolencies the greater Impieties and Obstinacies of the World the edge of their Spiritual Sword was dulled and blunted when Coercive outward Punishments alone could hope to prevail for Peace and Amendment of this we have several Instances upon Record as for the deposing Dioscorus in Evagrius his Ecclesiastical History l. 2. c. 4. in placing Proclus in the Episcopal Throne Socrat. Hist Eccl. lib. 7. cap. 4. which was immediately by Theodosius Maximinianus the defuncts Body being not yet laid in the Ground to prevent the Tumults of the People To this purpose we have the Case of one Cresconius a Bishop who left his own and invaded another's Church and upon a remand from the Council refusing to return the President of the Country is Petitioned and his Secular arm which alone has a Coercive Power over Mens Persons sends him back again according to the Constitutions Imperial Concil Carthag Can. 52. just such another Case as that of Paulus Samosetanus in the days of Aurelian the Emperor above-mentioned and the course of Proceedings we see is the same now as then both in Church and State as that Laws may be made to restrain such as were fled to the Church for refuge Can. 60. that the Riot and Excess be taken away on their Festivals which drew Men to Gentilism again by the obscener Practices and which were without shame and beyond Modesty Can. 65 66. that the Secular Power would come in eò quod Episcoporum autoritas incivitatibus contemnitur because the Power of the Bishops is contemn'd in the Cities Can. 70. ut Ecclesiae opem ferat to assist the Church against these Impieties so strenuous and prevailing Can. 78. as in the Case of the unrulier Donatists Can. 95 96. and the Thanks of the Bishops were given for their Ejection Can. 97. and the Emperor is Petitioned to grant Defensors to the Church Can. 10.109 and as the Church thus supplicated the Empire in these arduous Cases and when its assistance was wanting so on the other side did the Empire still advise with the Church when designing to make Religion the Municipal Law of the Empire to imbody it with the World under the same Sanctions either as to Punishments or Rewards to make it the Religion of the State also they still consulted antecedent Canons or present Bishops in Council or some Ecclesiastical Autority they created nothing anew gave the help of the World for Countenance Assistance and Confirmation to stablish what the Church had put its Sanction upon And those Emperors that designed to discountenance Christianity or set up some particular Heresie and stifle it in part or depose any great Church-men and some such there was they attempted it not but by the Clergy though of their own the Power as in themselves alone was not pretended to they had their own Synods and Bishops in order to it and what they did was done in their Names also and all this will readily appear to any one acquainted with the Canons of the Church and Laws of the Empire or if it seem too hard a task he 'l find it at least attempted to his hand and with Care and Industry reduced to a little room by Photius Patriarch of Constantinople in his Book therefore called the Nomo-Canon to shew the concurrency of the Laws and Canons the Canons still placed first as in course anteceding And in this sense only that of Socrates can be understood in the Proem to his Fifth Book of Ecclesiastical History 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Reges viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So soon as Kings began to be Christians the things of the Church were managed and accomplished
believe that every one that reads his Book is sworn to his Name and Words could possibly have produced them The Emperor only there takes care that Excommunication be according to the Church Canons suitably as Ecclesiastici hoc Canones fieri jubent in the Nomocanon the formal Power and Act is always supposed to be in and to be done by the Bishop or Priest if the Bishop or Presbyter Excommunicate otherwise than as the Canons enjoyn the Person so Excommunicated is to be absolved by another Bishop or Presbyter who has the inspection of them à Majore Sacerdote in the Novel and that Bishop or Presbyter that did the wrong is to be censured by the Bishop under whose Inspection or in whose district he is and lye under the Mulct at his Pleasure nor is there one word sounds that way that the Emperor did Excommunicate Nor can the Emperor with any more shew of reason be said to pass the formal Sentence of Excommunication by taking care and making Provision that it be done according to the Laws and Canons of the Church than he can be said to make Articles of Faith and determine in the high Points of the Trinity for which he appoints that the first Council at Nicea shall be the Rule and often enacts and resolves it shall be so explain'd and believed and professed accordingly as in that Council He may as well be said to make Creeds which he enjoyns to be done but by the Patriarchs and Bishops and the particular Faith to be professed by them or to Baptize for which Directions are given especially about Re-baptization and he judges him unfit for the Priesthood that does it Cod. Justinian l. 1. Tit. 6. Ne Baptismus iteretur he may no otherwise be said to Excommunicate than to obstruct Conversion or hinder Repentance and yet 't is the Imperial Edict against and Punishment upon Apostates Nè unquam in Pristinum statum revertentur nè flagitium morum obliterabitur Poenitentiâ Cod. 16. Theodos Tit. 6. l. 1. that they are never to return to their ancient state that the vileness of their Manners be never blotted out by Repentance intimating only the greatness of the Sin and the height of his indignation against them or that he did publickly officiate in his own Person in the daily Sacrifices because he takes care for a just Performance of the publick Liturgies and Services and when he declares against Oaths and Blasphemies that the guilt is not antecedent and from another Sanction Novel 78. and to put an end to these like instances that he Ordains in Person and makes Priests by whom so many Laws and Rules and Limitations and Qualifications are set and appointed as is above to be seen But as for this last instance Mr. Selden has found out so handsom an expedient for the Original of Holy Orders otherways and thereby renders them so accidentally trifling inconsiderable a thing that he answers his aim evacuates and baffles so effectually all Church-Power and indeed upon his Hypothesis so inconsiderable a thing it is that a Church-man would not desire it upon such terms much less is it a Prerogative fit for a King a Jewel for the embellishing the Crown Imperial so that he needs not contend to have this in the Magistrate as he doth the Church Censures He tells us De Synedriis lib. 1. cap. 14. pag. 569 570 571. and lib. 2. cap. 7. pag. 313 314 c. That Holy Orders has no more in it than an imitation of that particular School wherein St. Paul was educated under Gamaliel where it was usual for one that had arrived to a degree of Eminence above others as that of a Doctor to appoint and send out others under and after him And so St. Paul did in the managery of his Apostleship But did our Saviour also take this great Example of Gamaliel's School in his Eye when he sent forth his Twelve and Seventy or was it from his particular Education in some such place he took his Autority and Platform or did the Holy Ghost do the lâ—ke when placing Overseers in that Church which Christ had Purchased with his own Blood was not as the Purchase that of his own Blood so the Power by which he gathered and established it that All Power in Heaven and Earth first given unto him peculiar and extraordinary or did St. Paul himself say it was from Gamaliel's School or from the Will of any Man or from the Will of God he received his Apostleship himself and thereby had a Power to depute others as Timothy and Titus And surely unless his bare fiction of Story and Eutopian Plot must go for Truth and without any search and enquiry there can be nought in it to engage any assent or adherency unto it it is so precarious a begg'd thing that only those that deserve to be begg'd themselves can believe it and Mr. Selden doubtless pleased himself mightily to think how many fools it would meet with and he was sure of others of as ill a mind and design with himself to tread under foot the Ministry when it was down that it rise no more especially at that time when he wrote at least laid the contrivance of those his Tracts De Synedriis when the Sword of the Libertine alone bore rule and he took the advantage of it Nor has any one reason to believe that he bore better Will to the King than to the Church for he was a Member of that Rebellious Parliament of Forty Two and continued actually amidst them and bore a special sway in their Traiterous Actings and however his Pretence was That all Church-Power as from Christ was an Imposture and invading the Prerogative of the Crown it was in reality only to serve his Parliamentary Designs to take away the chief Support of the Crown that Church which mostly upheld it and 't was a sadder Sight yet to see it not only the usual fate of common Subjects but the Case of the greatest Prince then in Europe to be first stript of his Crown and Kingly Power to be made and publish'd a Bankrupt in the State lost as to his worldly Imployments and then made a Priest to have only the Power and Benefit of his Clergy remaining in and confirm'd unto him § XXIV THE sum of all is this The Empire it self never made any thing Law that related to the Church but what was first made Canon by the Church it self and those Powers always took their Direction from Church-men either in full Council or from the Practice of particular Churches or eminent Bishops of the Christian World and superadded their own Sanctions put under it their Secular Arm adjoyn'd their Autority to support and stablish them all those Directions to the several Patriarchs Exarchs Primates and Metropolitans were only to see their own Results at Councils practiced all the Edicts Laws Novels and Constitutions were first Church-Law and then the Law of the Empire receiv'd into the World and imbodied
the Civil Power or that Power of the State to erect an Autority against it because not of and under it that Prince cannot be said to be Supreme if a differing Power within him To be Supreme is to be above all there must be no Power apart from his who is the Supreme if so he is not Supreme This they urge with a great deal more to the same purpose and is the Stone that the great Hugo Grotius stumbles at in the entrance to his Treatise De jure Summarum Potestatum in Sacris and which occasions so many more falls he has all along in that Discourse it being stuffed with inconsistencies to it self throughout and no wonder when bottomed on so false a Principle that the Power of our Saviour is an Usurpation on the State nor does one absurdity go alone A Suspition upon Church-Government that has not the Honor to be new 't is as old as our Saviour in the Flesh and Herod we know started it against him so soon as Born in the World and his Title as King was known unto him for this he sought to kill him when an Infant and the little Children in Bethlehem were barbarously Murdered hoping the Babe Jesus might have died in the croud distrusting if he escaped he would have supplanted him of his Kingdom Nor did his Apostles after him escape the Suspition and Censure and yet our Saviour all along his life-time upon Earth and notoriously at his death still clear'd himself of the Aspersion asserting and maintaining his Power and Kingdom delivered him of the Father that All Power in Heaven and Earth and so did his Apostles too retain and exercise the same Power and with the same Innocency Nor do I doubt but to Vindicate his Body the Succeeding Church still claiming the like Power and that to every rational considering Person to each one that with Herod has not a design and believes it his interest to kill our Saviour to blot out his Power and Name and Memory on Earth § IV AND indeed to pass by the particular Answers to the Objection which will follow in course upon our Procedure the Objection must fall of it self to any one of common sense that exercises not his Enquiries more about Tricks and Phrases to wheedle delude and carry on his own particular Plot and Party then about that which is notorious Matter of Fact certain Truths and realities One thing I know that whereas I was blind I now see a Man that is called Jesus made clay and anointed mine eyes and said unto me Go to the Pool of Siloam and wash And I went and washed and I received sight He put clay upon mine eyes and I washed and do see This was the Answer of the Man that was born Blind and cured by our Saviour John 9.11.15.25 and this great notoriety to common sense baffled all the Malice and Purposes superseded all their trifling Enquiries designed to obscure the Power and Miracle of our Saviour's working that mighty Cure upon him as whether it was done on the Sabbath Day the Person was a Sinner c. and the same common sense and notoriety of Matter of Fact will be our Evidence and Avoucher in this our particular Case also and is the alone Answer we need to give in able indeed to baffle whatever the Skill of an Objector can lay or whatever inconsistencies the wit of Man may urge against us Can any even a Pharisaical race of Men ill-natur'd and Perverse give out and believe That that Body of Christians their Bishops and Governors should Assert and Maintain a Kingdom and Jurisdiction upon Earth destructive to that of the Empire or Secular by whose breath they in their Persons professed to subsist for whose Persons and Government and the Prosperity of both they always Pray'd and in the first place as by whose Influences they were to live Godly lives in all Godliness and Honesty whose Battels they fought whom they Honoured with all the titles of Power and Majesty and Magnificence whom but to think Evil of to Curse in their Hearts in their Bed-Chambers much more openly to Defame and speak Evil of was their Sin and Irreligion whom they acknowledged upon Earth as under God alone and to God alone accountable for all their Actions and Designs nor could any Man say what doest thou And all this they still Remonstrated and Publish'd to the World under the deepest sense of Religion and Zeal with the most solemn Protestations as in all their Apologies Defences and Writings does appear who made it a term of their Communion to Serve Support and Assist the Emperor to shew themselves Faithful and Just and Conscientious towards him equally as to serve their God and Saviour as to say their Prayers for themselves and live Righteously and Soberly in the World and the contrary was a just occasion for their Censures an Intermination upon the Offender who too often died under their Tyranny came peaceably to the Stake neither accusing nor reviling as under the stroke of God himself sealing with their Blood such their Obedience Nor in all our first Church-Story do we find the Catholick Christian engaged in any thing like a Plot or Council against his Governor his either Person or Power much less an open Rebel against him when either an Heathen or Heretick and his professed Persecutor for an Heretick has been no less Cruel than an Heathen and when to make up the Charge by their Malice as in the particular case of Athanasius accused as designing against the Empire by the Arians and Meletians to be accused was his great trouble to be under the Suspition of so foul a Crime being otherways able to acquit himself and so he did and indeed so generally received a Truth was it that a Christian could not be a Rebel or attempt any thing upon the Empire So much was it concluded of the Essence of his Profession that when his Enemies thought effectually to blemish and make him appear no Christian they libell'd him as a Rebel the more and the better a Christian the more did his Prince confide in him and 't is very well urg'd by our Adversaries that Constantine did look upon them as his great Support and Preservers nor could the Empire in all Probability have been continued to him without their Aid and Fidelity and for which his Favours and Temporalities were deservedly large unto them but this is their Error when they tell the World that all Church-Power was then and is still continued upon this score and by the alone favour of Princes IF it be said that all this was the effect § V alone of common Prudence and usual Wisdom they thus provided for their interest the Security in general of their both Religion and Persons and which all Wise Men do in the first place take care of they were wanting both of Power and Opportunity to do otherwise and had it not been so the Hypocrisie had ceased they had both appeared and
the Princes side laid by those that set the Controversie on foot and with shews to disenthrall and enlarge him WHAT is the reason of such our misunderstandings § VII that we cannot think and discern with the Ages before us is it that this Power has been abused in later Ages of the Church as by those of the Roman and Geneva Discipline who out of a Plea to one took both Swords invaded Kings and Kingdoms by it Let but the same Rule take place here as in the other Points of the Reformation and all will soon be well again Return to such the beginning those first and purer Ages of the Church to be ruled and governed by where the Platform is plain the Model easie for any Capacity and the Aberrations of some cannot in reason prejudice it But this will not do the ground of the Quarrel has really another bottom and their Reasons are another thing as must be obvious to him that is conversant with the Writings either of the Principal Authors of these new started Opinions or such as were accidentally only their occasion or after Abettors of them They cannot see nor assent to any Government as existing in the World but what is visible and sensible has its Operations and Effects upon outward Sense and its Organs upon the Person or Estate the Life or Bodily Action of Mankind and this to be presently inflicted Men they are that will allow no Corporations or Societies but those of this World for Buying and Selling for Trading and Trafficking for the Belly and the Back for outward Peace and Ease to Preserve themselves from one another at Home and Invasions from Abroad for the present Mess of Pottage good and gain on Earth nor can any other Power but such as this or in order to it be apprehended We have above observed That Herod the King was the first Man that suggested this great Error and that the Kingdom of our Saviour must supplant and abolish the Kingdoms of this World his Power and Caesar's could not stand together And this was managed by the Jews all along after who united with Herod to destroy our Saviour as an Usurper allowing and owning no King but Caesar upon that one Design and Principle And these Men we have now to deal with are every ways as blind as gross and carnal in this particular Point as were the Jews their Predecessors and the Veil of Moses is it so over their Faces that they are stark Blind either beyond or besides it The Jews of old did not with more Zeal and Industry contend for his Temporal Canaan and Promises Ordinances and Administrations or with greater Blindness rest himself in them or with greater Malice scorn and pursue such as said they saw beyond it then do these Men now adays deride those that say there is a Spiritual Kingdom which is our Saviour's a Power originally from Christ derived by Succession to his Body the Church to remain till the Restitution of all things that there is or can be any King but Caesar resolving all Power whatever into that which is Secular and rejecting all other as Opposite to the Dignity and Prerogative of Princes IT is not much to be marvelled at the § VIII Pamphlets that went about of this Nature in 1641. 'T was the Design of that time to unhinge and overthrow every thing well established and the Argument was less odious that began with the Church and its Power particularly I have by me a small Treatise which came forth in that year call'd The true Grounds of Ecclesiastical Regiment c. but the Title within is The Divine Right of Episcopacy refuted the more to ingage the Reader for Episcopacy was first to be taken away and he had the most advantage to do it it being the particular quarrel but the after-game was at all Church-Power in general and which he endeavours to erase upon this score as against the Soveraign Dignity of Kings for which he seems Zealous when to Dethrone Church-men but at last sets a Thousand more upon the Throne with him his Princes in Parliament as he calls them nay he sets them above the King and says though to Princes on their lawful Tribunals something is more due than at other times but to Princes something is more due than at other times but to Princes in Parliament there is most of all due all Power being not derived to the King without them and whose Ecclesiastical Power he there discourses And which I therefore here repeat to shew what was designed for our Kings by these Men when so much Pleading for a Power belonging to them which is the Church's and his chief Argument all along against Church-Power independent to Princes is that it is not like nor does it enter into any Rivality with that solid sensible coercive Power wherewith God has invested his true Lieutenants upon Earth and therefore is it but Imaginary and Improper That Power which is proper must include not only a Power of Commanding but also an effectual Virtue of forcing Obedience to its Commands and of subjecting and reducing such as shall not render themselves obedient that as among the Jews the Church and State was the same had the same Body the same Head the same Sword and that Head was Temporal and that Sword was Material and therefore 't is so with Christians nor have they any Sword or Head that is Spiritual Christians ought not to be so contrary to that excellent Discipline of the Jews which God himself ordered and to introduce I know not what Spiritual Rule in prejudice of Temporal Rule nor does he expect any Satisfaction from his Adversaries why there should be less Division betwixt Church and State among the Jews and less use of two several Swords and because Adultery was Punish'd with Death Christians ought not to be Excommunicated for it If God has given them sole Knowledge to Determine all Controversies and Power to Enact all Ecclesiastical Canons doubtless he has given them some binding Coercive force correspondent thereunto and if so why do they not expel all Dissention by it If their Virtue extend no further than to Exhortation why do they urge Commands upon us If they have a Commanding Power why do they not second it with due Compulsion it is plainly clear'd to us that Adultery by God's Law was Punish'd by the Temporal not Spiritual Sword and that the Abscissio animae amongst the Jews was only Corporal Punishment by Death the infliction whereof was only left to the Temporal Magistrate and that there was no difference observed between Crimes Spiritual and Crimes Temporal And therefore there ought to be none in the Church of Christ the form or essence of Law is that Coercive or Penal Virtue by which it binds all to its Obedience if Priests had any such Spiritual Sword doubtless it would have some sensible Efficacy and work to good Ends and Men would not nor could not choose but bow and submit themselves
but deposed Sect. 32. To Absolve and Re-admit into the Church this the design of Excommunication which is only a shutting out for a time in order to Mercy on whom to be inflicted It s certain force in the Execution Sect. 33. To depute others in the Ministry by Ordination the Necessity of it An instance in St. John out of Eusebius St. Clemens Romanus Calvin and Beza's Opinion and Practice It s ill Consequences Only those of the Priesthood can give this Power to others Sect. 34. The Objection answered and 't is plain the Church is an Incorporation with Laws Rewards and Penalties of its own not of this World nor opposing its Government Sect. 35. The outward stroke is reserved to the Day of Judgment but the Obligation is present If the Church has no Power nor Obligation because not that present Power to Punish or any like it neither has any Law in the Gospel Mr. Hobbs the more honest Man says neither the Ecclesiastical or Evangelical Law obliges His and their Principles infer it Sect. 36. The Power of Christ and his Church cannot clash with the Civil Power because no outward Process till the Day of Judgment and then civil outward Dominion is to cease in its course the present Vnion and Power to be sure cannot this is clear from the several instances of it already reckon'd up Sect. 37. Their Faith is an inward act of the Soul acquitted by Mr. Hobbes and that which is more open Confession obliges if opposed but to dye and be Martyrs Sect. 38. That they Covenant against Sin makes them but the better Subjects Sect. 39. No Man that says his Prayers duly can be a Rebel because first of all to own his Prince and Pray for him The first Christians Innocency defended them when impleaded for Assembling without leave If this did not do they suffer'd Their Christianity did not exempt them from inspection Sect. 40. Charity not obstructive to Government when on due Objects a common Purse without leave dangerous not generally to be allow'd These Christians innocency indemnified them The Divine Right of Titles how asserted Nothing can justifie those Practices but their real Case The Profession of Christianity must otherwise cease Sect. 41 42. Presiding in the Church rises no higher than the Duties exercised 'T is Dr. Tillotson alone ever said To Preach Christ is to Affront Princes If the Jesuit do let him look to it Christianity is not in fault An entring into or renewing the Covenant at the Font or Altar is no Encroachment on the but Justice of Peace in the Neighborhood Sect. 43. Excommunication and other Censures change no Mans Condition as to this World they have no force but in relation to known Duties Prudence is to rule in the Execution particular regard to be had to Princes Whatever is Coercive annexed is from the Prince Lay-Judges Chancellors c. when first granted by the Empire upon the Bishops Petition The same is Absolution neither innovate in Civil Affairs Sect. 44. Conciliary Acts invade no more than does the Gospel it self That Canons have had the precedency of the Law is by the favour of Princes a Council without local meeting Letters Missive Sect. 45. Ordaining others no more prejudicial to the Crown than the former acts This is Mr. Hobbe's Misapprehension Sect. 46. HAVING produced the chief and first § I Arguments and Autorities that are depended upon and urged in this Controversie an Answer to some of which I have already prevented others fall in pieces of themselves to an easie Capacity the rest I shall indeavour to refute in these following Conclusions and which will tend much to the cleering the whole Subject and I 'le begin with the first and great Error of Mr. Selden and his other Friends and which is laid down and insisted on as the Foundation of the whole ensuing Fabrick We are told that all Punishments both before and after the giving the Law in Sinai from Adam to Christ were bodily and outwardly Coercive and inflictive the distinction of Sins Spiritual and Temporal was not then known nor was there any such different Regiments and Governors in regard to them the Sword punish'd Adulteries as well as Burglary And therefore 't is so still under the Gospel by the Institution of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ nor was there a Jurisdiction separate and apart relating alone to Spiritual Church Affairs designed or erected by him An Inference granting the truth of the Premises surely as wide as their keenest Adversaries can wish it to be and the Consequence had been every ways as due and firm in respect to the Law given by Moses that there were never any such Levitical Rites and Ceremonies given from God by him such a Polity erected because nothing like it that we know of was given to Adam in Paradice nor is there one Rule Law or Direction since given to his Succession the Patriarchs in particular but upon the same force and account must still be exemplary nor ought there can there be any institution that is diverse from them received if a distinct Power from all the World before him be admitted and allowed in Moses the Servant much more in Christ a Son over his own House by whom God hath spoken to us in these last days as in times past he did to the Fathers by the Prophets whom he appointed Heir of all things by whom also he hath made the worlds who is the bright Image of his Person upholding all things by the word of his Power Heb. 1.1 2 3 4 5 6. who had greater Autority more full and larger Instructions and Commission and more signally evidenced to the outward sense of Mankind than any Prophets or Messengers of Gods had before who had all Power in Heaven and Earth committed unto him both spake and acted as never Man did And in the same peculiar manner did he gather and stablish and six his Church or Body upon Earth and at his going away into Heaven send down his own Gifts in the face of all Nations at the Feast of Pentecost erected his own Kingdom appointed his own Officers assign'd his own Members influenced them by his own Spirit governed them by his own Laws associated them in his own Method and nothing of it was of this World He made a new Covenant stablish'd on better Grounds incouraged with better Hopes and Promises instituted new Ordinances made new Seals and Conveyances gave new Liveries and Pledges that were diverse a Government to last for ever till the restitution of all things with a respect to nothing future but Heaven and all this absolute in it self and independent abstract and separate from any or all the Powers and Associations in the world beside complying and yielding to no one Circumstance Exigence or Necessity whatever so contrived and ordained that as himself her Head so the Church his Body and every Member in particular hath life in it self derived only from him their own Powers and
not know how better to give an account of this Kingdom of Christ than in the answer of those Kindred of our Saviours to Domitian the Tyrant related by Eusebius Eccl. hist l. 3. c. 20. Domitian was afraid of Christ's Kingdom as Herod had been before him he had the same apprehension that still is in the World derived from most excellent Presidents Herod and Domitian that Christ's Kingdom and Caesar's could not stand together whereupon such Christ's Kindred were summoned and accused as of the stock of David who upon demand acknowledging they were so and giving an account of their Meanness and Poverty as to this World and shewing their hands which were hard and callous with the assiduity of labour for a daily sustenance and not to be suspected to be Invaders of the Kingdomes here they were at length demanded concerning Christ and his Kingdom what the nature and quality of it was and when and in what places he was to appear and to which they also answered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. that Christ's Kingdom is not of this world or earthy but heavenly and Angelical to be accomplished in the conclusion of Ages when coming in Glory he shall Judge the living and the dead and retribute to every one according to his works IN the mean time and till such his Personal § XXXVI Appearance in Glory with outward Power and force as well as splendor to sit visibly as a Judge and every one to receive in his Body by way of Punishment what evil he hath done in the flesh to say his Power is none at all because not of the same quality in the same form of Process and by sensible Awards is to discourse as those that are equally ignorant of the Reasons of such God's terrible Proceedings at the end of the World that Fire and Brimstone in Hell as they are of the nature of his Church and Association its Rules and Laws and Discipline here on Earth And our Saviour therefore and then personally and bodily afflicts for ever because his Moral spiritual Laws his Church Injunctions so often urged have been believed on these mens Principles to be of no account to have no edge or force because no present destruction of the flesh nothing sensible restraining or coercing had they been received and obey'd as in the design from God such his fearful doom had never reached them and to contend that the Ecclesiastical Church Power is now none at all because not such as at that great Day or not the same as of a secular Judge at an Assize to send to Prison Whip or put to Death is with the same Argument to contend that there is no force or obligation in any one oâ— all the Gospel moral Precepts either whose utmost return by way of outward Penalty upon such as receiv'd them not was to casâ— off the dust of their Shoes upon them As the Seventy we know were by our Saviour alonâ— enjoyn'd who had neither Whips or Axeâ— Goals nor Gallows committed unto them whâ— could only deny them the advantage of thaâ— Gospel which themselves refused when it was Preached unto them To say Church Power can be none at all upon this score is to deny all Evangelical Power for present Judgment is not there speedily executed and the Law of Love and Virtue are alike precarious and of no Autority and Jurisdiction that 's engaging as are the Laws Ecclesiastical if their reason be good they give against the latter because voluntary in the submission to and acceptance of them and no one is forced except he please to covenant at first or if he does covenant he 's as much free from all outward force whether he pleased or not to put his part in practice he may renounce and rescind it at his liberty Surely no Cords tye no Irons bind like those that enter into the Soul whether it be by Love or Fear by Punishments or Rewards by the Comforts and Hopes of the one or the Terrors and Consternations of the other a wounded Conscience who can bear its burdens are insupportable and which comes not by Weights and Engines inventions of Man pressing and over-powering and according to the Principles of these men there can be no other but by reflex actions and a sense of non-performance of Duty and the horrid black guilt annexed from a sense of that loss which like the Conscience it self is spiritual and which over-bears and over-rules very oft to the neglecting of the flesh to the undergoing any Tortures and Cruciatings of the Body as we know despairing Persons do when as with Esau the Blessing is sought and 't is too late there 's no room for Repentance but which is not the first and immediate punishment and burden and surely a sence of Duty performed and the Expectations of a good man are no less binding on the other side â—ngage and tye the Soul that is not feared with an hot iron is sensible and considering and he that believes and is fully possessed that without the Pale of the Church if not a Member of this Body and Association as above described there is no Gospel advantages here nor life hereafter no other way revealed to us by God in his Word to follow and adhere unto he needs no other Motive and Boâ—d for his keeping within this Pale for his submission to the Laws and Discipline of it and if any one does not believe it he is to be dealt with as those are that say the flames of Hell are painted also that deny the reality and truth of those eternal Punishments and 't is the great folly of those men who first suppose there can be no Association but by outward ties and then upon this begg'd Principle of their own conclude against this of the Church and which is only spiritual The sum of this Section is this if the Church on Earth has no Power because no outward coercion neither has any one instance of the Gospel if these Men's reasons conclude any thing And Mr. Hobbâ—… is to be done thus much right in the case that he speaks so like an Honest man that is to one that is true to his Principles and all along asserts That the New Testament is only Canonical and Law as made so by the Civil Magistrate and to say it is a Law in any place where the Law of the Common-wealth has not made it so is contrary to the Nature of a Law and more particularly as to the present point in hand that the Decrees of the Council at jerusalem Acts 15.28 were no more Laws than are those other Precepts Repent be Baptized keep the Commandments believe the Gospel come unto me sell all that thou hast give it to the Poor and follow me which are not Commandments but Invitations and Callings of Men to Christianity the Kingdom which they acknowledged and to which they invited being not present but to come and they that have no Kingdom can make no Laws nor did
any sin in not receiving the Doctrines of Christ All which is to be read with more to the same purpose in his Leviathan Part 3. cap. 42. Of Power Ecclesiastical NOR are they less out of the way when § XXXVII arguing that this Power of the Church must of necessity clash with that of the State and oppose the Soveraignty of Princes for there is no outward Execution in a form of justice can be supposed as from Christ whatever of that Nature is is from the other secular Fountain till Christ Jesus appears himself at the Day of Judgment no Personâ—l compulsive Summons from him till to that great Bar and all earthy Power and Dominion and Magistracy is to submit and appear to his Jurisdiction because to be at an end to be deposed by God himself ripe as a sheaf of Wheat lay'd up in the Barn with its due just and designed Period and Completion and then this Kingdom of Christ also shall be delivered up to the Father that God may be all in all they are both as to continue upon Earth so to end together but neither destroying one another and the alone Council and Pleasure of the Almighty makes the dissolution and which as the sense of the Primitive and first Christians is cleer by the account that is given of the Kindred of our Saviour in the above-mentioned place of Eusebius of the constant course of their Tribute out of the assiduity of their labour and lower condition in the World they pay'd unto Caesar no one relation to Christ as not of the Flesh so nor of the Spirit either as Men or Christians giving but any shew of Title unto the Government that is Civil or of exemption from any one Tax or Imposition by that Government laid upon them a Truth that has been opened illustrated and deduced down through this Discourse and in some competent measure so as to satisfie upon a rational enquiry and it may be farther cleer'd up and rendred more easie and convincing yet to a due understanding if the several acts and offices of this Body the Church be resum'd again in their distinct Considerations and it will farther appear that these Powers as they never have in Matter of Fact so in their Nature and Constitution they do not any ways impinge upon much less silence and depose any ways justle with and usurp those Powers that are Secular let us run them over as in their order already set down § XXXVIII THE first instance of their Union and Association is in their Articles of Faith joyning and consenting together in this belief that Jesus is the Christ and which makes the Christians a Sect sever'd distinct and apart from all others The sum indeed of all the Gospel as Mr. Hobbs with great industry and pains does collect and prove and 't is what is own'd by him as reconcileable with our obedience to the civil Magistrate be he Christian or Infidel for their Faith is internal and invisible as he goes on and tells us they have the license that Naaman had and need not put themselves into danger for it Leviathan Part 3. cap. 43. or admitting farther and which Christianity surely obliges to that publick Professions of this Faith are to be made and for this the several Creeds as the Apostles c. were drawn up open Confessions of them were made and Subscriptions to them to the incurring of danger from the Civil Power they only hereby engag'd themselves to suffer to dye and become in that signal manner Martyrs and Witnesses for and of them at the stake but never so to oppose as to rebel in the defence and maintenance of them there was nothing there believed and professed or from any other Obligation or Contract that did engage them so to do THEY next covenanted against Sin and § XXXIX Iniquity Murder Fraud Perfidiousness c. and was of old and is still a particular Act of this Christian Body or Association as in the Covenant at Baptism nor is any one any farther a Christian than he performs it and this cannot by Malice it self be termed a covenanting against the Prince or his Power None are indeed and throughly good Subjects but such as are good Christians thus vow and pay Evil manners abate of a just sense and Conscience of Justice and Honesty the Prince cannot have of such men so full a security of their due and true Allegiance and Fidelity to him why should they be more true to him than they are to their God and besides they expose the Government to his Wrath and Vengeance And 't is not upon this account the late Solemn League and Covenant was adjudged by the publick Autority of the Nation to be injurious to the State as ingaging to Repentance and to be burnt by the common Hangman § XL A farther instance of this Association is an assembling and joyning together in the Publick Service of God in those offices of Christianity which belong to all in common as in the Duties of Prayer Praises Lauding with one Mouth and Praising God for all his Mercies to Mankind and to themselves in particular this is a Church Office which must endure so long as the Sun and Moon as there is a Church a Body or Collection of men upon Earth professing Christianity if Publick Prayers and Praises cease the Church the People of God must cease particular Christians may be confined and incapacitated in the Performance and where one is though with Jeremy in the Dungeon or where two or three are met together God will be with them but the daily Sacrifice cannot wholly be abolished till Days and Nights are no more should I say they are to be longer and to remain in Heaven it were not amiss to be sure the Praises will and why not the Prayers so far at least as a signal acknowledgment of our dependency upon God the Perfection of that State and full growth we there arrive unto does not invest us with any of those first and nearest of God's attributes and which are therefore call'd incommunicable as peculiar to his Essence and particularly those of Self-existency and Independency his Autarchy and All-sufficiency and which Duties if discharged as required by God on Earth imply and enjoyn our acknowledgment and obedience as to our God so to our Prince in his distinct relations to us and that by all the ties and obligations the performance of so solemn a Duty as Prayer and Praises are can lay upon us least found perfidious Hypocrites and unfaithful to our God as all that are false to their King in the long run will appear so to God Almighty the very Form and Nature of our Prayers and Praises run so that therein we are first to Pray and give Thanks for Kings and there and in that most solemn manner own them 1 Tim. 2.1 2 3. a Rebbel cannot say his Prayers at all but in the very action publish himself a Rogue if saying them as St. Paul has appointed
were made Law and establish'd by the Civil â—…veraign and they were to thank God it was no worse and did the King command to adore the Linnen or Font or Tables themselves they are not to gain-say and affront because affronting Laws and Magistracy to pretend to a farther obligation from Conscience and to oppose even a false Religion or to make Proselytes to their own though they be never so sure they are in the right is to be guilty of gross hypocrisie without an extraordinary Commission from God to that purpose they are no more obliged to do it here at home than to go into Spain or Italy or Turkey and there make Converts and which no Protestant holds himself obliged to do Sure I am the Bishops had had more Justice done them than they found in the Sermon and it seems very unequal that they should be supposed to redress and be left wide open to a popular Odium because not doing what never was in their Commission what would have been their gross hypocrisie in attempting because having neither an extraordinary Commission for it nor hath the Providence of God made way by the Permission of the Magistrate and all that can be reply'd is this that Mr. Dean chang'd his Judgment upon the writing his next Sermon which he hath declared to be by Nature mutable and thereby has this advantage is always ready for better information or rather to act the Aecebolius as occasion and to do him all the right I can this is to be said for him that he dissents from Mr. Hobbs something in this very passage of his Sermon for the inference on his side is strong that where extraordinary Commission by Miracles is evidenced a false Religion is to be opposed and the true one to be Preach'd though the Magistracy and Law be otherwise which Mr. Hobs will by no means allow he will not permit it to the Apostles Leviathan Part 3. Cap. 42. but then how Mr. Dean will avoid this Consequence that there is no Church Power on Earth nor is it lawful for any one to Preach the Gospel when it is not Law by the Civil Soveraign since those Miracles which alone were in the Apostles time and which is though less of it every whit as rank Hobbism I have not sagacity enough to see that he desires to do it is not very certain all that can be said for him is that he seems to have been but raw in the Controversie and is ready as all such ought to be to submit upon better Information and to which if these Papers contribute they so far answer the design of the Author BUT whatever either Mr. Hobs or his Adherents § VII have wrote or preached sure we are our Saviour calls for Confession before Men for the owning asserting and publishing his Truths and most of all then and most publickly when mostly opposed with the greatest hazard and jeopardy even before Kings and not to be ashamed when the Kings of the Earth stand up and the Rulers take Council together against us and Christ risen from the Dead is not only to be believed in the Brain and Heart but to be confessed too with the Mouth if Salvation the effect of it as St. Paul tells us 1 Cor. 10. whatever anteceding Law against us or what Power soever enacting 't is our very case now as was St. Peter's in the Acts and we are to obey God and not Man And as sure I am also that this was the Practice of the succeeding Holy Fathers and Professors of the Church in the best Ages of it who still opposed whatever Religion was false by what Law soever established and abetted and still possessed and preached the true in opposition to it with the hazard of whatsoever was merciless from this World could attend them for it Nor was it then thought a Contempt or Affront to the Persons or Laws or Offices of the Civil Magistrate nor was it believed so to be by the Empire it self where satisfaction desired or enquiry made as appears particularly in the days of Trajan who ceased his Persecutions and Jealousies too being well assured that they met before day to Pray and give Thanks to and Praise God and Christ covenanting against Adultery Murder and such like Iniquities 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that they acted nothing at all against the Laws and the Government was not affronted nor endanger'd by it an account of which is to be seen Tertul. Apol. c. 1. and in Eusebius his Church History Lib. 3. c. 33. and not to Profess Christianity was to deny it and nothing but that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that second Baptism as 't is call'd in Sozomen's Church History that initiation or entrance by a new Engagement a thorow Change and severe Repentance could give again a Name or Interest in Christ replace such among the Candidates for Heaven And those that offered at the Heathen shrines at the Command of the Emperor that fell away and disown'd the Faith in the time of Persecution were not received nor had their Libellum Pacis admitted to a Reconciliation and Unity with the Church but upon severest Penance and a larger trial of after-adherency and such were never admitted into Holy Orders to any Charge or Publick Power in the Church or if in Holy Orders before he was deposed for ever of so much blacker a guilt was it not to Preach Christ than not barely only to confess him however Mr. Dean places no Duty at all in it but the quite contrary as appears all along in the Story of those times and the Rules and Canons of the Church made occasionally on such accounts And we have instances in some that when dragg'd to the Idol with Cenfers in their Hands and there forced to offer as it was one of the Devices of the Devil thus outwardly to gain Countenance to his Worship Men of greater Eminency in Christianity being reserv'd for this purpose and whose Examples were more prevailing and apter to perswade being represented as such that had freely offer'd these Christians did not satisfie themselves in their own innocency and that the Church did so repute and receive them but when released openly declared the force in the face of the Magistracy and their greatest Conventions and were again laid hold of for it went immediately to the stake or the Beasts suffer'd Martyrdom for it though the Laws of the Land Prohibited it and the doing of it was Death though indulged by the Church and the present Circumstances indemnified if not done yet all did not perswade when but in shew to the World their Christianity was not own'd and to the appearance of many denied by them they could on no other terms believe themselves Christians nor consequently design to live upon Earth than as on Earth they confessed their Saviour before Men on this account only did they expect that Christ should own them before his Father which is in Heaven And they were only the worst of
Acts of Charity we know are to cease in respect of Acts of Justice nor does the Practice of Charity oblige at all but as qualified and in set Capacities every one is to give as he is able and yet both oblige in their kind and order and the engagement is always the same and perpetual the former is not null'd by reason of the present incapacity or doth it end with the Cessation as to Practice or hath the veriest Lazar a Charter thereby for inhumanity And upon the same account it is and the Parity of Reason that even particular Acts of the Positive Institutions and Worship of God give way to Obedience to Governors and when the common Political good of Mankind is engaged as I shall have occasion to instance farther hereafter Upon these accounts it is that the Laws and Magistracy are not to be affronted or contemned nor can the Magistracy it self subsist with the Church upon other terms Obedience is to be preferr'd before Sacrifice the positive Appointments even of God himself and much more may the Obligation cease and which created in us a Duty in Laws purely Humane and Ecclesiastical 'T is true these Powers did never yet clash or break out into publick Oppositions from the time that the Empire became Christian and so along in the best and flourishing Ages as is above observed the Empire still consulting the Church and her Canons were made Law or if otherwise and some particular Indulgences and Abatements there was as to Church Duties by good Emperors upon the score of their alone Imperial Power granted as some there was upon what rules of Policy and Necessity is not now needful to enquire and which we have reason to believe the Church never consented to and to be sure there was no antecedent Canon to go by yet we know this that the Church submitted and her Discipline was so far relaxed and abated thereby Constantine the Great was always a favourer of the true Catholicks and upheld and maintain'd them in each their Privileges and Immunities suffering no one Sect to advance above to oppress and invade them and yet he sometimes gave Indulgencies to all Sects whatever the Heathens not excepted and laid Penalties upon none because of their Religion and the Novatians in particular had again special favour when all other Conventicles were put down Euseb Hist l. 10. c. 5. De Vit. Constant l. 2. c. 59. Socrat. Hist l. 5. c. 10. and that they had their Churches in Rome it self and flourish'd there in many Congregations and with great Auditories Socrates also tells us till removed by Pope Celestinus l. 7. c. 11. and that most Pestilent Sect of the Donatists all along condemn'd by the Catholick Church was so long indulg'd by Constantine till incourag'd by his Mercy they brake out into Tumults and Seditions and the Empire was unsafe even shaken by them the Natural effect of all Schisms and there was a Necessity for recalling their Grants of Liberty as aso by their other continued outrages upon all that was Sacred and Separate whether Persons or Objects all which is to be seen at large in Optatus and Saint Austin especially Lib. 3. Cont. Cres con Donatist or he that desires an account of them more briefly let him read it given by Vallesius in his Treatise entitled De Scismate Donatist bound up at the end of his Eusebius Church History Now in these Cases the Church Power and Laws are to cease in part in the Execution though the right remains nor were they so exercised against these Schismaticks as otherwise they ought and would have been If God's Name cannot be glorified on Earth in that decent befitting reverend useful way agreeing with his Nature and Worship and our relations to him and the whole Earth be filled with his due Praise at once the Church Power and Laws which provide that it may are not to be stretched beyond those Designs for which she is endowed with a Power for Sanction nor can any Society suppose themselves obliged to promote by such means as God never put into their hands the holy Bishops therefore and good Christians of old praised God for the Liberties and Advantages they had in their own Persons and Congregations adorning their Professions by Zeal and good Works they could not remedy in others what Power and Laws which they had not did indulge and indemnifie them in Or if this by a Law he denied to themselves the Laws purely Ecclesiastical were never design'd nor urg'd so to oblige against the state as that the particular Practice is in the immutable indispensable Duties for Heaven and in such cases 't is only their equity reasonableness higher use and advantage in the Christian Worship is to be insinuated pleaded and perswaded unto Autority over mens Persons or Actions was never placed in Church-men nor has it any other influence or effect upon either than to exclude them the Kingdom of Heaven nor will omissions of this Nature and under the same Circumstances amount unto that nor can any man lose his Heaven for it it may be a Sin in such as with too much liberty or too little regard indulge or restrain or in such as too gladly accept of it to the neglect or abuse or contempt of the Service of God but there can be none in those where Necessity lays the force and the harder terms and obligations from the Powers of the World makes the intermission and Vacancies in the Performances § X TO say the whole and alone Power to make Church Laws and six Rules in God's Worship is in the Prince is against the supposal that the Church is an Incorporation by Divine Appointment with its own Laws and Officers a City within it self with its own Rules for Unity within its self and those that place all here and such there be and urge the unreasonableness of Separation upon the account of things indifferent because against the civilly established Polity of a Nation which has appointed their present use and observancy seem to make the terms for Unity and Compliance too wide as others do too narrow and the accidents of the World may occasion inconveniencies insupportable the very naming it is Scandalous that a Christian is originally engaged by his Profession to receive Rules in Holy Worship from an Atheist or a Mahumetan for such Persons may be and so then it must be upon these Principles 't is one thing to want what ought to be or what is most useful through an undue Administration of Justice and which my Religion may engage me to undergo and quite another thing to be antecedently engag'd in their Determinations Nor again on the other hand can the Church be supposed to ingage immutably and peremptorily by those Laws of her own though never so apt and useful to the Practice of which the Persons and other Advantages from the World are necessary and which she hath not in her Power as she is a Society of our Saviour's Institution
he proves thoughout the Church Historians Fathers and Imperial Laws thus declaring assenting to and practising pag. 146. If by the Church you mean the Precepts and Promises Gifts and Graces of God preached in the Church and poured on the Church Princes must humbly obey them and reverently receive them as well as other private Men so that Prophets Apostles Evangelists and all other builders of Christ's Church as touching their Persons be subject to the Princes power Mary the word of God in their Mouths and Seals of grace in their hands because they are of God and not of themselves they be far above the Princes Calling and Regiment and in those Cases Kings and Queens if they will be saved must submit themselves to God's everlasting truth and testament as well as the meanest of their People and yet they are for all this Supreme and subject only to God as to outward Process either from the Pope or from any other Power And so pag. 147. he brings in those Passages of Tertullian Optatus and Chrysostom à Deo secundum solo Deo minorem parem super terram non habet c. the word Supreme was added to the Oath for that the Bishop of Rome taketh upon him to command and depose Princes as their lawful supreme Judg to exclude this wicked presumption we teach that Princes be supreme Rulers we mean subject to no superior Judg to give a reason of their doings but only to God pag. 164 165 166. it must be confessed he speaks not home as might be required when explaining how Kings as well as other Christians are comprized under the duty of obeying their Rulers and to be subject unto them c. surely there is a true real obedience due even from Princes to Church-Officers and their Power devolved from Christ and this learned Man seems here and in other places not to be rescued from that common prejudice and possession seized upon too many and all along continued upon casting of the Popes Superiority here in England that there can be no Church-Power at all universally obliging and requiring obedience but what implyes and infers corporal bodily subjection a change in Seculars 't is this puts him upon that great mistake that the Pastors of the Church are not influenced by the Kingly power of Christ and what is regal in him is given to the Civil Magistrate and who only succeed him in that Office perpetual Government of the Church cap. 10. and Arch-bishop Bancroft confounding these two Powers gives Beza and Cartwright as much advantage in that Particular as their Disciples and Followers can now really wish and because they say that Christ as a King prescribed the form of Ecclesiastical Government being a King the head of the Church doth administer his Kingdom per legitime vocatos pastores by Pastors lawfully called he runs them upon this absurdity that their Autority must be without any controul The Pastors must be all of them Emperors the Doctors Kings the Elders Dukes and the Deacons Lords of the Treasury c. survey of the holy pretended discipline c. cap 24. and yet after all 't is mostly Name◠and Titles that occasions this or the accidental pressing an argument as there will be occasion to consider anon and Bishop Bilson goes on and acknowledges all in effect only Bishops and Pastors are left out and tells us That the Church may be Superior and yet the Pope subject to Princes Princes be Supreme and the Church their Superior the Scriptures be superior to Princes and yet Princes supreme the Sacrament be likewise above them and yet that hindreth not their Supremacy Truth Grace Faith Prayer and other Ghostly Virtues be higher than all earthly States and all this notwithstanding Princes may be supreme Governors of their Countries and which though in over abating Terms and with too scrupulous a fear where no fear ought to be declares as fully as can be the thing it self viz. That Princes are to be subject to the Government in the Church settled by Christ in its Bishops and Pastors and which both as a Prophet a Priest and a King he derives unto them Church-Officers have a Power underived and independent to the Crown only 't is ill worded by the Warden Things Powers Gifts Virtues c. as standing and settled on Earth and not invested in Persons can really be of no force and command at all or rather and which at last will amount to the same will be what every one shall please to make them and the Prince will have as many Supremes as are pretenders to these Gifts of the Spirit and which will be enough as experience taught us this only then can be meant by these Circumlocutions and why it might not have been spoken in down-right terms I cannot imagine that the Bishops and Pastors of the Church with the Bible put into their hands as it is at their Ordination with full autority given for the Offices ministerial have a real Power and are truly Rulers in the Church have a Supremacy and Superiority peculiarly theirs and all that will come to Heaven must come under this Ministry or Government it 's jurisdiction and discipline be they Princes or Subjects on Earth or what ever worldly Government they are possessed of unless he 'l say every Man hath these Ghostly Virtues which can urge a Text of Scripture and which cannot be conceived of him and to this purpose he goes farther pag. 167 168. Though the Members of the Church be subject and obedient to Princes yet the things contained in the Church and bestowed on the Church by God himself I mean the light of his Word the working of his Sacraments the gifts of his Grace and fruits of his Spirit be far superior to all Princes The plain meaning of which can be but this Certain separate Persons invested by God beyond Christians at large with such Gifts and Graces the Bishops and Pastors of the Church and in which respect a good Emperor is within the Church and not above it as St. Ambrose is to this purpose here quoted by him pag. 171. You must distinguish the things proposed in the Church from the Persons that were Members of the Church the Persons both Lay-Men and Clerks by God's Law were the Princes Subjects the things comprized in the Church and by God himself committed to the Church because they were Gods could be subject to the Power and Will of no mortal Creature Pope nor Prince the Prince is above the Persons of the Church not above things in the Church pag. 173. 176. 178. you know we do not make the Prince Judg of Faith we confess Princes to be no Judges of Faith but we do not encourage Princes themselves to be Judges of Faith but only we wish them to discern betwixt truth and error which every private Man must do that is a Christian pag. 174 175 176. he approves of Ambrose's Answer to Valentinian that is was stout but lawful constant but
much as it is defended with his Epistles doth not seem to be any of the most probable cap. 6. Sect. 16. I have heard I confess of Doctor Owen's Preface to his Book of Perseverance and then to be sure he is with abundance of honor his second and to omit the other ill Adventures in that unlucky Book of particular Forms of Church-Government and which savour too much of Robert Parker's musty Vessel the Doctor is beyond measure unfortunate who having by a notorious Mistake urg'd the Autority of our whole Church representative in King Edward VI day 's to avouch his most false Assertion That Episcopacy is not necessary and immutable That the King's Majesty may appoint Bishops or not appoint them or appoint other Officers for the Government of the Church cap. 8. When he goes on further to prove this by the particular Autorities of our Doctors since as Whitgift Cozius Whitgift's Chancellor Lowe Hooker Bridges c. he is if possible more unlucky yet and his Mistake more shameful he not only transcribes every Quotation out of Parker's second Book De politeia Ecclesiastica cap. 39.42 and the very Book Page Chapter Section and Figures stand all in Parker's Margin as they are wrote in his Book and which is no great Matter but and which is the harder Fate he urges and appeals to them as his Autority that Episcopacy is mutable and of but humane assignation and which thing Parker all along there owns and declares was not these Doctors Opinions he upbraids and taunts them for asserting the contrary as contradicting themselves and putting Cheats upon others because they believe Bishops by divine Right and perpetually obliging 't is his Objection upon them that their own Principles will not bear them out in it This is the case these Doctors assert over and over again as they must do if agreeing with our Church and their own Subscriptions that the Scriptures are not a full and perfect Rule for Discipline and Government and there is still a Power in the Church to make Laws as occasion offers even to vary from Examples of Discipline and Government which has there been practised Parker thinks he has the advantage and concludes upon them that then the Government by Bishops is changeable also and which is sounded only on Scripture Example and who reply that though they can make Laws in some Cases and alter them as occasion yet in all they cannot though some Examples in Scripture do not yet others do necessarily oblige and the Examples they produce necessarily obliging are these Imposition of Hands in Ordinations that to impose Hands is appropriated to Bishops as the Apostles Successors The observation of the Lord's-Day The institution of Metropolitans c. and this very account Parker himself gives us as to these Instances and all which will readily appear to any one that reads over Parker l. 2. cap. 39 40 41 42. particularly cap. 42. Sect. 8. 9. and that consults farther than Titles and Margins And that this Power of making Canons and Laws for the Government and Discipline of the Church is one of the main Foundations of the Hierarchy and therefore Parker sets himself with might and main to oppose it This will be yielded to Doctor Stillingfleet 't was this alone by which the Courts Ecclesiastical kept them within some moderate Bounds nor did they break out into Rebellion and Schism till that Power was abated in the execution and which made the Bishops so odious to them but that Episcopacy it self is as Arbitrary in its original and occasionally only as are many Church Laws and in the Power of any order of Persons or any Person now upon Earth to alter or confirm it This Parker by arguing would willingly infer upon these Doctors from their own Principles but acknowledges they did not own contrary to their Principles this Dr. Stillingfleet every ways mistakes and reports out of Parker's ill gathered Conclusion and Objection as their both Principles Practice and so every ways defames them and I shall only propose it to the Doctors consideration whether some satisfaction may not ought not to be required of him for the injury he has done to so many Worthies of our Church hereby I can assure him it has been long expected and if it be not done suddenly he may believe the World ere it be much older will be particularly disinformed at present I shall return to those Doctors mentioned in the beginning of this Section and who are not yet freed from the Contumelies laid on them by Parker as these are from his though I do not question but I shall equally vindicate both § XXVI IT is an easie thing to make any Man 's Writing in a plausible shew to run thwart to and contradict themselves the occasion and Circumstances not considered and if particular Occurrencies be not abated for the worst of Heresies will thus shelter themselves under the best Autorities How largely and frequently do the Ancient Fathers of the Church speak of the Powers and excellence of Nature and Reason when disputing against the Gentiles when Apologizing for and recommending to them the Christian Religion Justin Martyr Apol. 2. goes so far as to say the wiser sort of the Greeks were Christians such as Socrates Heraclitus c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. because living up to the Rules of Reason but must not those be wide Arguings that say and some have said it the Fathers thought the use of Reason alone able to direct and assist us for Heaven when 't is the coming of Christ in the Flesh his additional super-natural Revelations of Grace and Truth those farther discoveries and assistances to Mankind is the occasion and general subject of their Writings and a belief of which is that they endeavor to bring the Greeks unto to make evident and rational to all Men when 't was only the particular application of an Argument they aim'd at and in the design is most true that every one so far as truly rational he is Christian Christianity is no new thing nor strange 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whosoever pursues Justice and Honesty and other commendable Actions suited to the universal eternal Rules of Nature is acceptable to God by this both the Jews under the Law and the Patriarchs and holy Men from the first Creation through the knowledg of Christ were saved as Justin Martyr disputes cum Tryphone Judeo and Eusebius has a whole Chapter to this purpose Eccl. Hist l. 1. c. 4. Every one that is read in that History knows that the great cry of the Arians against the Council of Nice was they were Innovators and a licentious Pen has of late managed and pursued it afresh Sandius hist Enucleata as using Words and bringing in Doctrines which were not either in Scripture or in the Writings and Determinations of the ancient Doctors of the Church when asserting and explaining the one substance or eternal Generation of the Son of God which though it
it self was not thought to be concerned 't was what was reputed only secular and the most eminent and very near all the Bishops were zealous Sticklers against the Pope or at least submitted to it then when zealous for the Roman Catholick Religion Doctrines and Worship and to which they adhered in King Edward's days and Queen Elizabeth's when the Reformation went on farther and was settled as now by Law in the Church The Supremacy was not then the Characteristical Mark though since to keep up the Parties it is so and which occasioned that warm Dialogue betwixt the Jesuite and Doctor Bilson of which I have given so large an account already the Doctor 's design being to vindicate our Church from the Opinions of Erastus urged in effect upon us by the Jesuite and that by asserting the Prince Supreme in all Causes over all Persons we give not to him any thing that is Church-Power enstated by Christ on the Apostles and by them derived to the Bishops their alone Successors herein this being thus settled and over-ruled against the Romanist another Enemy Man comes with his Tares and which are scattered in the seed-Plot and grow up together with it the Puritan starts up in the midst of us and the Point is That this Power of the Keys is in the Presbytery their Eldership made up of Lay-Men mostly call'd Lay-Elders and these for the greatest part as must be in abundance of Parishes Mechanicks and the meaner sort who have the Power of laying on of Hands Ordaining and Excommunicating nay more these inconsiderable Persons are not only invested with the Power of Bishops and Church-Men but with that Power and Supremacy is by us given to the Prince to Preside over and Govern all Persons and Causes by Process to Cite Summon and Convene before them to implead acquit or condemn amerce or punish even to confinement in their Consistories and no Cause or Person to be exempted if manageable in order to Religion they emulate and succeed the Pope himself and in the highest instances of his pretended Power and Soveraignty even to Summon and Censure Kings of whom Personal Attendance is required now against this it is these Worthies change and wield their Weapons accordingly as a good Fencer is ready at all against these New Popes as they call them and whoso please may read in Bishop Bancroft's Survey of the pretended holy Discipline cap. 22 23 24 25. and in his Book of Dangerous Positions and Proceedings published and practised within the Island of Britain under pretence for Reformation and for the Presbyterial Discipline In Bishop Bilson's Perpetual Government of Christ's Church Cap. 9 10. and Bishop Whitgift's Defence of the Answer to the Admonition Tract 17. pag. 627 628 629 630 c. against these it is their warmth and Argument is spent in Defence of the Rights of the King and Church in scorn and detestation of such those pretending Ignaro's Their words are these with a deal more to this purpose As though Christ's Soveraignty Kingdom and Lordship were no where acknowledged or to be found but where half a dozen Artisans Shoo-makers Tinkers and Taylors with their Preacher and Reader Eight or Nine Cherubins forsooth do rule the whole Parish So Bancroft Dangerous Positions c. l. 2. c. 2. That the King must submit to the Pastor and be content to be joyned in Commission with the basest sort of People if it please the Parish to appoint him and if over-ruled must be contented and the Prince loses all Autority in Ecclesiastical Matters and he must maintain and see executed such Laws Orders and Ceremonies as the Pastor with his Seniors shall make and decree So Bishop Whitgift ibid. p. 656 657. That the Church-warden and Syde-men in every Parish are the meetest Men that you can find to direct Princes in judging of Ecclesiastical Crimes and Causes a wretched state of the Church it must be that shall depend on such silly Governors as Husbandmen and Artisans Ploughmen and Craftsmen and we descend to the Cart for advice in Church-Government So Bishop Bilson Perpetual Government Cap. 10. and if thus in behalf of the Regal and Sacerdotal Power the Magistracy and the Ministry and which are the only Governors of the Church of Christ as they contend against these monstrous sort of People with their High-shoo'd feet and Clowns hands invading both the King and the Church be set as one man to oppose them and their distinct Powers not so nicely and distinctly stated at one time as they are and require an another and appear but as one Weapon that with present advantage it may be wellded against them this is to be imputed to the warmth and zeal of the Disputant whether as Aggressor or Defendant his settled particular judgment is to be fetch'd from his particular designed Decision and Determination in other Cases and when the naked Cause is alone and before him the immediate proper object of his Consideration and it must be confessed neither do I believe the great reason and choicer learning of that excellent Prelate were he now alive again could upon second thoughts extricate himself that Bishop Bilson's Argument against Lay-Elders Cap. 10. Pag. 148. and which Robert Parker so much twits him with is wide of a Conclusion and very ill laid it runs thus I cannot conceive how Lay-Elders should be Governors of Christ's Church and yet be neither Ministers nor Magistrates Christ being the Head and fulness of the Church which is his Body governeth the same as a Prophet a Priest and a King and after his Example all Government in the Church is either Prophetical Sacerdotal or Regal the Doctors have a Prophetical the Pastors a Sacerdotal and the Magistrates a Regal Power What fourth Regiment can we find for Lay-Elders All that can be said is this there appear'd an Argument against a Lay-Elder he was thought thus shut out from having any Place or Power as from Christ not considering the ill distribution of the offices of Christ in general and his bad-placed Successions and more especially the worser consequence that must attend a deriving the Magistrates Power from the Mediatorship and 't is what neither Whitgift nor Bancroft did Consider As a King Priest and Prophet he erected and settled his Church on Earth by virtue of that Commission and All Power given him of the Father Mat. 11. but he did not as such meddle with the Kingdoms on Earth as the Mediator he was himself a Subject and professed and practised Subjection and Obedience demanded only the Subjects right Protection by the Government he found established in the World by his Father But however the present Argument was wrong laid and whencesoever the Magistrates Power is derived 't is all along and by them all supposed and maintained quite different and apart from that of the Ministry or the Priesthood and they are asserted two quite diverse offices and their Powers do not reach to one another I 'le only now instance